Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/10/2016
5:30 am - 8:30 am
Location
Berkleigh Country Club
ASM LEHIGH VALLEY – THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016
LOCATION: Berkleigh Golf Club
REGISTRATION: 5:30 – 6:30 P.M.
DINNER: 6:30 – 7:30 P.M.
PRESENTATION: 7:30 – 8:30 P.M.
SPEAKER: Dr. Carol Kiely
TOPIC: The Microscopic World of Lunar Dust
COST: $25.00 for Members & guests
$15.00 for Students
DEADLINE: Monday, November 7, 2016
DINNER CHOICES:
Chicken Oscar – chicken breast stuffed with crab filling and asparagus spears and topped with hollandaise sauce.
Beef Tenderloin Tips
Egg Plant Parmesan (Vegetarian) – breaded eggplant topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Salad, starch, vegetable, and dessert are included.
Abstract & Biography
“Magnificent Desolation” Those were the words uttered by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin as he allowed his eyes to take in the starkness and monochrome hues of the lunar surface. The scene was a pristine desert landscape, but instead of the familiar beige-colored sand, the entire surface was covered in a fine, charcoal-gray powder. Despite being the focus of intense scientific study for over forty years, very few optical micrographs of lunar dust particles have been published. Those on display in our national museums are either in monochrome or low resolution. Most researchers have relied on scanning electron microscopy to show the external structure and morphology of individual particles. Their internal structure is revealed by optical and SE micrographs of polished section of particles embedded in resin. These tiny particles are national treasures and, quite frankly, deserve more. Kiely and her colleagues have used a combination of high resolution optical, scanning electron and X-ray microscopy together with some innovative lighting techniques, stereo imaging, and rotational movies to reveal the internal and external structure of wide variety of individual lunar particles, from agglutinates to impact spherules, in an attempt to dispel the myth that lunar dust is just a fine gray powder.
Carol Kiely, Visiting Research Scholar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is an accomplished research scientist and science journalist. She obtained her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1984 from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and is now a visiting research scholar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh. Her current interests center on the use of photography and stereo imaging to help explain scientific phenomena. She loves all aspects of science, especially astronomy, and is currently the star party coordinator for the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society.